Okay here's the backstory, the good folks at Sigil Games Online (http://www.sigilgames.com/) is holding a Community Summit (http://www.vanguardsoh.com/oct2004summit.php) to let a few select people (http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=7271) preview a beta of their MMORPG, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (http://www.vanguardsoh.com/).

Amongst the people invited are Woody of GU Comics (http://www.gucomics.com/) and several officers from ex-top EQ guilds FoH (http://fohguild.org/) and Afterlife (http://www.afterlifeguild.org/). Like the recent Everquest Guild Summit (http://eqlive.station.sony.com/guildsummit.jsp), the Vanguard community is up in arms over the people selected to represent them.

I can't help but chuckle softly, it seems like any summits are simply community relation disasters regardless of the game.

Everything is a community relations disaster, to one or more portions of the community. People love to bitch.

The problem is when they said That leaves us 10 more spots we can fill. We can invite 10 more people who will represent you, the community. So we decided to ask you who you thought it should be.

That's right... we are asking you to tell us who should be invited. Who do you think would best represent you and the people that play MMOGs?
ost of us on the Vanguard forums agree that there is no way in hell that the people who are getting to go are the ones we requested.

But seriously, would you rather that all 10 persons that get selected have high post counts on the Vanguard forum?

Lol nope...I was just hoping for someone different than the standard fansites, uberguilds, and Woody.

Well, the EQ Summit did generate some good will and enthusiasm... for a while. But they really didnt follow through on many of the promises that were made there, so the honeymoon didnt last, and things went back to normal very quickly, only with even more bitter players and bad word of mouth than there was before.

Brad doesnt have that problem though. He doesnt actually have to make any changes to a live game, so there wont be any backlash when he fails to do so. The Vanguard summit will probably work out quite well for him as a PR move. And anything that eventually comes back to bite him once the game is live will be seen as having come from the distant past.

Not sure how many more of this type of PR stunt will work before the MMOG community gets completely jaded, but being 2nd has never really hurt anyone hehe.

Lot of the old school VI people, like the ones in Sigil,were personal friends with a lot of the high end guilds. Kinda makes you wonder how much of the Sigil summit is actually a "meeting of the minds" and how much is a "boy's night out, paid for by the company."

Well, the EQ Summit did generate some good will and enthusiasm... for a while. But they really didnt follow through on many of the promises that were made there, so the honeymoon didnt last, and things went back to normal very quickly, only with even more bitter players and bad word of mouth than there was before.
I'm still enthusiastic, but I don't wanna sound like a VAK!


*VAK ~
old school Druid's Grove term meaning "Verant Ass Kisser" :)

If you guys want to suggest someone there is a link - I wouldn't mind going to this summit.

http://www.vanguardsoh.com/oct2004summit.php

Send us an email and make your suggestion for who you feel should be invited. Give us the individual's name and contact information and tell us a little about why you think they should be invited to the SGO Community Summit. Please include any links you can to examples that will demonstrate your reasons for your suggestions. We are the oldest class site and if there is something there that will interest our community I wouldn't mind representing or sending a Representative from our forums out to this summit.

I actually recommended a couple of people from TDG when I sent my email.

No one from my list got selected *sigh*

I actually recommended a couple of people from TDG when I sent my email.

No one from my list got selected *sigh*Ya gotta stop sending in those cleric names! *grin*

Lol

It was funny. I put together a list of like 20 people....3 or 4 from this forum, a few people who are well known in the AO community, a few from DAoC and even one of the devs from CoH who expressed an interest in going when we were talking on Test not to long ago.

I thought my list was pretty well thought out and I figured I would get at least one or two hits.

I got nothing :P

It really seems to me that the attendees were pretty much decided upon long before they read a single email.

Same here, I recommended a few TDG folks for the summit but none got selected. Bummer

Yea looks like they hardcoded 20 (might of let a stragler come in) so lets say 21, its cool - I am looking forward to this game and may or may not put up a site.. but interest has to be on both sides of the coin for us to spend the money to take on another Fansite.